Kavango East grapples with overcrowded cells, deteriorating infrastructure
In the Kavango East Region, police holding cells are overcrowded, vehicles used to ferry inmates are old and infrastructure is falling apart.
This according to acting regional commander Deputy Commissioner Eino Nambahu, who made the remarks during a recent visit by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security, which focused on the state of police cells and barracks.
Despite a cell capacity of just 260, the region currently has a total of 394 inmates at four police stations. Of this total, 367 are Namibians and 27 are foreigners.
“This number keeps fluctuating as some inmates who are taken to court are either granted bail, or sentenced and ferried to the main correctional facility. Since crime never stops, we also keep making arrests, which increases the number of inmates at our holding cells,” Nambahu said.
Of the four stations, two currently hold more inmates than their intended capacity.
The Rundu police station, with a cell capacity of 100, has 270 inmates, while the Divundu police station - with a capacity of 30 - currently accommodates 60 inmates, he revealed.
Part of the reason why holding cells are overcrowded is because when some inmates are released on bail, they don’t return to court, Nambahu explained.
“Their cases end up being removed from the court roll and locating them usually presents challenges. Moreover, most of the inmates taking up space in our holding cells are those responsible for petty crime. However, we are busy with engagements with the court to see whether we can waive some of the cases, especially for those inmates [accused of] petty crimes, in order to decongest our holding cells.
“With this approach, we want to ensure that we do it properly so that we do not encourage petty crimes among members of the public,” he added.
Slow going
Head of criminal investigations in the region, Bonifatius Kanyetu said another reason for the overcrowded holding cells is due to the slow investigation of cases, leading to further postponements.
“We only have 105 investigators in the region and each investigator is supposed to handle a maximum of 50 cases; however, investigators are now handling about 250 cases - which makes it difficult to attend to all cases in time,” he said.
Nambahu further stressed the need for improved police infrastructure in the region.
“Our infrastructure, especially the police stations and the regional headquarters, is slowly deteriorating,” he said, adding that the same can be said for the region’s fleet – specifically vehicles that transport dead bodies and inmates to the main correctional facility.
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This according to acting regional commander Deputy Commissioner Eino Nambahu, who made the remarks during a recent visit by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security, which focused on the state of police cells and barracks.
Despite a cell capacity of just 260, the region currently has a total of 394 inmates at four police stations. Of this total, 367 are Namibians and 27 are foreigners.
“This number keeps fluctuating as some inmates who are taken to court are either granted bail, or sentenced and ferried to the main correctional facility. Since crime never stops, we also keep making arrests, which increases the number of inmates at our holding cells,” Nambahu said.
Of the four stations, two currently hold more inmates than their intended capacity.
The Rundu police station, with a cell capacity of 100, has 270 inmates, while the Divundu police station - with a capacity of 30 - currently accommodates 60 inmates, he revealed.
Part of the reason why holding cells are overcrowded is because when some inmates are released on bail, they don’t return to court, Nambahu explained.
“Their cases end up being removed from the court roll and locating them usually presents challenges. Moreover, most of the inmates taking up space in our holding cells are those responsible for petty crime. However, we are busy with engagements with the court to see whether we can waive some of the cases, especially for those inmates [accused of] petty crimes, in order to decongest our holding cells.
“With this approach, we want to ensure that we do it properly so that we do not encourage petty crimes among members of the public,” he added.
Slow going
Head of criminal investigations in the region, Bonifatius Kanyetu said another reason for the overcrowded holding cells is due to the slow investigation of cases, leading to further postponements.
“We only have 105 investigators in the region and each investigator is supposed to handle a maximum of 50 cases; however, investigators are now handling about 250 cases - which makes it difficult to attend to all cases in time,” he said.
Nambahu further stressed the need for improved police infrastructure in the region.
“Our infrastructure, especially the police stations and the regional headquarters, is slowly deteriorating,” he said, adding that the same can be said for the region’s fleet – specifically vehicles that transport dead bodies and inmates to the main correctional facility.
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